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Best chicken katsu

Where have you found to have the best chicken katsu? Most places serve it pretty plain with more reliance on the dipping sauce than actually making the katsu taste good. I usually don't like dipping it in the sauce as its usually just a tangy bbq type of thing. I find it interested that in Seattle almost all the chicken katsu is made with white meat while in hawaii its exclusively dark meat. My current favorate chicken katsu place is from Mikes BBQ which just opened up in Pucks Alley. Its crunchy and tasty without the need of sauce.

If i've got the need for chicken katsu I go to L&L. I know their chicken katsu is almost paper thin, ok maybe cardboard thick, but it has decent taste and can stand alone without sauce. The sauce does vary from L&L to L&L, but I like to put mine on the mac salad, since that's the thing with the least taste.

I also like the chicken katsu from Coco Ichibanya (Curry House). They give a more substantial chicken katsu and the sauce there is the curry. Yum!

Great topic - the dark meat katsu is definitely a Hawai`i thing, and a good thing too. All-breast meat is somehow considered such a big deal (to the point of advertising it) in most places on the mainland when they sell boneless fried chicken, and probably mainland versions of chicken katsu take off from that. But too me it cannot be chicken katsu without using thigh meat; that's one of the things that make it distinctive - it doesn't dry out and has a lot more flavor. The other main features are panko bread crumbs and serving it with tonkatsu sauce.

In fact, while chicken katsu was obviously a takeoff on tonkatsu (japanese-style pork cutlet), I'm 99% sure it was first popularized here in Hawai`i. I neve noticed in Japan until fairly recently and they use the local word "chicken katsu", instead of "torikatsu" or whatever.

The best (and I'm sure one of the first if the not the first) plate lunch chicken katsu's was served at Grace's Inn starting from before I remember, but for a long time Gracie's and Diner's were the two main places selling it. Both served great chicken katsu in the 1980s which I think was still the best I've seen so far. . . with the classic massive serving sliced tonkatsu-style in 1 cm slices so you can see how the breading and meat clung together. . .

The best chicken katsu that I've ever had has got to be from Café Imperial. They are located in the lobby of the Imperial Plaza on Kapiolani Blvd (near Lexus). I did a post of the place a while back. You can find my post on it here . Once you have the chicken katsu here, you won't want to eat it anywhere else. The chicken literally melts in your mouth.

Sun Ki,

I have to agree about Diners. When I lived in the states back in the late 80s, I used to crave their chicken katsu. These days, it's become a faint memory. At the new Diners, it's nothing like it used to be....

I don't know that it's the "best" but I really like Sumo Ramen's chicken katsu curry, even without
the sauce which is nice and thick with carrot chunks and onions - the katsu is tasty, no 'icky'
pieces or yucky things to bite into. It is not greasy and the breading is nice without being heavy.
I like the sauce so well I even go over and buy just that and use it for other stuff here. The
location I go to is in Kaneohe by the Safeway. Everything at Sumo is very fresh which I like
you can see into the kitchen and it is extremely clean a hui ho............

Cafe Imperial eh? is that next to Cho Dong? I'll def try it tuesday! Thanks!

Hexium VII, JumblyJu and Sun Ki,

The best chicken katsu that I've ever had has got to be from Café Imperial. They are located in the lobby of the Imperial Plaza on Kapiolani Blvd (near Lexus). I did a post of the place a while back. You can find my post on it here . Once you have the chicken katsu here, you won't want to eat it anywhere else. The chicken literally melts in your mouth.

Sun Ki,

I have to agree about Diners. When I lived in the states back in the late 80s, I used to crave their chicken katsu. These days, it's become a faint memory. At the new Diners, it's nothing like it used to be....